England is a beautiful country!?

• I have never really appreciate UK so much before, I live in london all my life, have never really bother to explore outside london. Whenever I have holiday off work i normally straight down to the airport somewhere hot, but with money being tight I took a week off and stay here so I went Cornwall for the weekend, then to Exmoor national park, Bath and Oxford. All of them were beautiful. I have never felt so free and relax,I want to take more holidays in the UK now. I even thinking of moving out of london in future. I am only in my mid 20s but london or any cities is not fun if money is tight. Have to say if we has great weather all year round UK got to be one the best country to live as long you live outside of the cities. Have anyone got any suggestions of places you recommend to visit in future ...no cities thanks York Oxford Lake District Cornwall

• Answer:

  You asked about specifically England. Yes, England is very beautiful indeed. Or many parts of it are. I hope very much that you will be able to explore it. I love several of the big English cities outside London, but as you describe yourself as a longtime London resident I'll leave them out as you may be looking for something other than big-city vibe. My suggestions would be: - Dorset. Very 'Deep England' in its green, rolling hills, small market towns, pretty villages and some beautiful coastline. - Devon and Cornwall. Both different to each other, Devon resolutely English and Cornwall with a strong Celtic identity. I'd visit these for their coastlines and beaches. On a good day there are few coasts in the world that I have enjoyed more. Heavily indented and punctuated all the time with bays, coves and rocky cliffs and extremely beautiful old ports like Dartmouth. Dramatic surf in the north. - East Anglia, especially Suffolk and Norfolk. Not a popular choice for many but I love this region. It's empty and spooky and atmospheric. The beaches are fringed with tall stands of pine trees and inland it is flat. Typical landscape here in the summer is a field of wheat with a massive oak tree in the middle. You can walk for miles without seeing another soul. - Peak District. Choose between cute green valleys with small villages nestling in them or the huge, haunting, rolling moorlands of the Dark Peak - Cumbria and the Lakes. Just. Amazing. I'd also recommend virtually anywhere in Yorkshire but especially the Dales and the North York moors. Also the Cotswolds, Quantocks, Malvern Hills and Shropshire. My main advice, however, would be to just follow your nose. I am visiting my boyfriend's family this weekend in...Northamptonshire. Without wishing to be rude, Northamptonshire is the sort of county everyone ignores. It is basically thought of by Londoners, Southerners and Northerners as 'somewhere on the M1'. It is for travelling through, not visiting. Yet I spent yesterday evening sitting outside an idyllic pub in warm weather watching the sun go down over an English village green and to be honest, I would not have wanted to be anywhere else in the world. My point is that it's really not a touristed or well-known place...just average. You don't have to follow the crowds or the guidebooks in this country. This is a gorgeous country and I really hope you enjoy it. And yes, the other parts of the UK are gorgeous too, and when you ask about those in your question, people will answer that too. ;-)